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BP uses prison labor, tax breaks to clean up their mess

The consequences of the Deep Horizon BP Oil spill will likely not be fully known for years and by then most of the men and women who are responsible for this disaster will either be out of office, in new jobs or retired. However, that shouldn’t stop us from paying attention to some of the newest and most disturbing aspects of the spill, which are not only environmental and health related.

Would it shock you to know that BP Oil is using modern slavery to clean up the Gulf, and better yet the American taxpayer is paying for it? That might make you want to buy your gas somewhere else.

One of the most disturbing impacts of the BP Oil spill has been the mutli-headed impact it’s had on the local economy. Let’s not forget that metro New Orleans and the Gulf region lost over 200,000 residents in the year after Hurricane Katrina, and that loss of customers and employees has left the region struggling to find a new identity. The spill has essentially ended summer tourism and fishing in the region, putting thousands of seasonal employees out of work. In fact, one of the only companies in position to hire anyone is actually BP, which has been tasked with the massive multi-billion dollar clean-up that in the region.

Every other day you see a new spate of commercials from BP Oil with earnest looking hardhats claiming that they’re working hard to clean up the mess and how nobody could be any sorrier than BP that this all happened. Dozens of Web sites have sprung up in the last several months advertising paying jobs in the Gulf region as part of the clean-up. You would think that at least someone is getting work out of this disaster, but you’d be shocked as to who’s working most.

A recent article by Abe Louise Young in the Nation magazine points out that BP is engaging in the most despicable of shell games (pun intended) in the coast region. Rather than hiring local citizens for clean-up duty, or just deploying more of their own staff, British Petroleum has been using PRISON labor to clean up some of the most dangerous and toxic regions of the gulf.

The problem with BP hiring prison labor is multi-layered. First, prisoners don’t have any rights. They can’t complain about inhaling fumes from oil slicked and dispersant chemicals for 12 hours a day, or report any abuses on the part of their employers due to BP’s notorious ‘gag order’. Further, if they refuse the work they can lose “time off for good behavior” on their sentencing. Louisiana, the state that has the highest percentage of their population in prison is now using that population as slave labor for BP.

But the problem is even worse when you look at the benefits for BP and the impact on the American taxpayer. Hiring prison labor means that BP, the fourth largest corporation in the world, can pay as little as 10 cents an hour rather than paying locals real wages. Worse, due to Bush-era tax laws, companies that hire “at risk employees” such as prisoners or welfare recipients receive tax breaks up to $2,500 per hire or up to 40 percent of the wages paid.

Meanwhile prison laborers who get sick inhaling toxic fumes and waste on the job will go back to prison where our taxpayer dollars will have to cover their limited medical care. BP Oil does it again! Destroying a region with irresponsible drilling, cleaning it up by supporting the racist and classist prison industrial complex and then getting tax breaks and healthcare to cover it all up provided by the U.S. taxpayer. They could not have planned this better if they had tried.

While British Petroleum has pledged 20 billion dollars to a fund for displaced and economically harmed locals in the region, their use of prison labor and tax loopholes to cut down their own expenses will continue unabated unless the U.S. public becomes aware and does something about it. Every American citizen should call their U.S. representative and senators and ask that they close the tax loophole that allows companies such as BP to benefit from prison labor to clean up messes that they have created on their own. BP Oil needs to clean up its own mess and not get tax breaks to do it.

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About Jason Johnson

Dr. Jason Johnson is a professor, political analyst and public speaker. Fresh, unflappable, objective, he is known for his ability to break down stories with wit and candor. Johnson is the author the book Political Consultants and Campaigns: One Day to Sell, a tenured professor in the School of Global Journalism & Communication at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland and Politics Editor at TheRoot.com. Dr. Johnson has an extensive public speaking and media background ranging from … [Read More...] about About Jason Johnson